1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to devices and methods for improving the delivery of patient care to patients, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation to devices and methods for improving the delivery of patient care to patients wherein patient information relating to a selected patient is obtained at a local facility system and is automatically transmitted to a regional facility system in response to a first patient recommendation signal indicating that the selected patient would benefit from immediate patient care.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
About sixteen million people in the United States are diabetics. It is known in the art that diabetics are at risk for a disease referred to as "diabetic retinopathy". Diabetic retinopathy is an insidious disease which if left untreated may cause blindness or serious vision loss. Because diabetic retinopathy does not cause pain or a change in the appearance of an afflicted individual's eye, diabetics afflicted with diabetic retinopathy are typically unaware of a condition that threatens their vision. About 40,000 of the sixteen million diabetics in the United States may go blind each year because of unsuspected and untreated diabetic retinopathy.
Although not all of these 40,000 diabetics can be effectively treated to prevent blindness even with regular screening eye exams, we estimate that blindness could be prevented in about 50% of these 40,000 diabetics if all of such diabetics were regularly screened for diabetic retinopathy. It should be noted that most general physicians are either untrained or lack the necessary equipment to detect diabetic retinopathy through an eye exam. Thus, diabetics must typically be examined by an optometrist or an ophthalmologist, some of whom are retinal specialists, on a regular basis so that diabetic retinopathy can be detected in its early stages.
However, there are many barriers to health care such as time, money, and convenience which prevent diabetics from receiving regular screening eye-exams. For example, ophthalmologists and retinal specialists are typically located in urban areas while diabetics are located in both urban areas and rural areas. Thus, it has been difficult for the diabetics living in rural areas to obtain the necessary regular eye exams from optometrists, ophthalmologists or retinal specialists because of the time and travel commitments needed for diabetics living in rural areas. In addition, there are access problems involved in diabetics receiving regular screening eye exams even for those who live near comprehensive medical facilities. That is, diabetics should regularly have data collected about their eyes, their kidneys, their feet and their nervous system, for example. Currently, diabetics must have a separate appointment with an optometrist or ophthalmologist to have their eyes examined, and a separate appointment with a nephrologist for kidney evaluation, and a separate appointment with a podiatrist to have their feet examined, and a separate appointment with a neurologist to have their nervous system examined, etc. This creates problems for both the diabetic patient and the health care providers in that it is inconvenient for the diabetic patient and difficult for each of the health care providers to keep each other informed. For these and possibly other reasons It has been estimated that only about 50% of diabetics participate in regular screening eye exams.
In addition to the loss of sight of diabetics, unsuspected and untreated diabetic retinopathy is also costly to society. Substantial savings on society which result from the screening for diabetic retinopathy have been predicted by several computer models. All of the models are based on estimates of the annual cost of diagnosing and treating diabetic retinopathy, the annual cost of a year of blindness to the federal government, the effectiveness of treatment and data depicting the prevalence, incidence and progression of the disease. Relying on the sum of annual Social Security benefits, Social Security insurance, tax losses and payments from Medicare and Medicaid, the savings to society per individual successfully enrolled in a long-term screening and treatment program amounts to about $9571 per year.
To this end, a need has long existed for a disease management system that increases the accuracy and accessibility of health care while also reducing the expenses incurred thereby. It is to such a system that the present invention is directed.